With Ocean Lakes decimated with Transfers to BSCHS, should they have been in the Top 10 VHSL rankings?
No - but I couldn't tell you if those rankings take into account the transfers. However, I understand why they were on past reputation and what the program has achieved lately.
Having seen them today at ODU Team Camp - the Dolphins should be strong in the trenches, but are very inexperienced at virtually every other position. They return just one starter on offense (center Nick Low) and one on defense (Tennessee commit Eric Crosby). Even two of the projected starters they had on defense that didn't leave for Bishop Sullivan departed with one moving back to Alabama from where he was from after being one of their top tacklers a season ago and another player moving to the Northern Virginia area.
The staff is pretty solid with Joe Jones coming over from King's Fork, where he made the Bulldogs a perennial playoff team, and defensive coordinator Chris Ramey has been on a couple of state title winning staffs before, both at Ocean Lakes and Landstown. But they'll have their work cut out for them to make a deep run in 6A with local teams like Oscar Smith, Grassfield, Western Branch, Woodside and Cox more seasoned than them at key spots.